Source: McLaren Media Centre

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McLaren warn to not expect any miracles for remainder of season

McLaren warn to not "expect any miracles" for remainder of season

10-09-2018 13:44
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown has acknowledged that the team is currently working hard to improve results for the remainder of the season, but he has also warned to not expect any miracles from the Woking-based team.

McLaren have been in their worst form of the season in the two races in Belgium and Italy since the summer break. No points from either race and two DNF's for Fernando Alonso, it's looking rather dire for the team right now.

The team have progressively gotten worse as the season has unfolded. In the first four races of the season, McLaren had both cars finishing well in the points in three of the four first races, with no retirements either. The switch from Honda to Renault really seemed to be paying dividends, but now, the team has had a cruel reality check.

“I think other teams have developed at a faster pace than ourselves,” Brown confessed to GPfans.

“I think it appears we’ve gone backwards - I think the reality is that everyone else has gone forwards, but in Formula 1, if you’re not going forwards, you’re going backwards.

Stoffel Vandoorne hasn't scored points since that fourth race in Azerbaijan, and Alonso might score points, but he only can do so if his car makes it to the end, which is not that often in recent races.

“We’ll continue to push on this car, but unfortunately we’ve produced an extremely poor race car that is not that responsive to changes, which I think tells you inherently, we just don’t have a good race car."

Looking at the final seven races of the season, Brown doesn't expect things to get much better.

“I would expect, unfortunately, similar type of results, maybe a little bit more circuit-specific.

“I wouldn’t expect any miracles.”